Videogames: The Movie (2014)

I’ve written about it before, but I’m someone who grew up playing videogames. Starting on the first Pong machine my father bought almost every game console/computer which came out and it is something I continued. I played games on the Atari 2600, MSX, Commodore 64, Amiga, Mega Drive, Dreamcast, Playstation etc. Although time is currently an issue (I can’t dedicate as much of it to gaming as I’d like to and I might only finish a maximum of 4 or 5 games a year) my gamer heart is still pumping. The history of gaming doesn’t hold too many secrets for me. Besides reading Edge magazine for years I also have read several books about the subject. Now there is this documentary which you’d expect, purely base on the title, to be THE ultimate movie about the subject. The question is: is it?

With a history of over 40 years there is a lot of ground to be covered. This documentary does that by interviewing some well-known people working in the industry (Nolan Bushnell (Atari), Palmer Lucky (Oculus Rift) and Cliff Bezinski (Gears of War)) and showing a timeline of the important moments in gaming history. In other words it has the right ingredients to present a informative story to the viewer. Unfortunately the chef doesn’t know how to use them which results in a dish which isn’t as tasty as it sounds. The timeline isn’t followed chronologically and there is constant switching between subject matter that it simply doesn’t feel like a consistent whole. Various times jumps back in time to a subject which was already looked at. This gave me a strong feeling that this documentary was edited while it was being shot and when new parts were recorded they were just pasted in somewhere.

Video Games: The Movie simply lacks focus. The movie tries to look as many things as possible that there isn’t anything that holds it all together. It can’t generate that feeling that you are learning something new (especially as a gamer). It only seems to be about praising the games industry generating a nerdy “Aren’t we amazing” feeling which simply doesn’t fit. I would have rather seen a factual way of presenting it all, leaving it up to the viewer to make up their minds.

There are also huge parts of gaming history missing, like the impact Playstation had and current changes in the gaming landscape because of gaming on tablets/mobile phones. For a documentary which should inform every viewer (also those without much knowledge about gaming) it fails, especially with its given title and that’s a shame. My expectations were higher. Documentaries about games like Indie Game: The Movie, The King of Kong (or even Special When Lit which is about pinball) are much better than this. Video Games: The Movie is simply a missed opportunity.